The present invention relates to systems for generating color displays from various types of input information. More particularly, this invention relates to a system for interfacing a commercially available programming device, such as a personal computer with a data source and a color display, with minimal load on the storage and processing facilities of the programming device.
In the field of color displays, a variety of systems have been proposed for real time color imagery of input information. Such systems function to translate input signals into color drive signals used to generate multi-color images. The displayed images may illustrate models or other objects to be tested. Changing conditions may be depicted in real time on the display. For example, when the temperature of an object is of interest, the color of each portion of the displayed image may be a function of the actual or anticipated temperature of that respective portion. Hotter portions may be illustrated in red, with the hottest portions being a more intense red.
Color and/or intensity variations may also be variable in response to levels of characteristics such as light, magnetic field, moisture, vibration, or response to interrogation signals. Though the information processing in each case may be substantially different, the display system in each case is operative to respond to some changeable parameter by varying the color and/or the intensity of the displayed image.
Though numerous systems have been proposed for processing information to generate a color display responsive to changes in input signals, those systems combine in a single unit. Those devices incorporate the capacity to generate a signal stream to set up color coding registers (for correlating input information and color or intensity signals), and the capacity to translate the input data through those registers after they have been color coded. Thus, the same device includes both circuitry for generating a signal stream to set up or code the color registers in relation to input information, and circuitry for subsequently translating the input information through those registers after they have been color coded.
In some applications color coding and color translating require interpretation of vast flows of data. Dedicated software and hardware architectures with complex microelectronics may be necessary to translate the input information into color drive signals. The costs of such systems, including dedicated hardware and software components is typically high. However, in other applications, it may be desirable to segregate the coding and translating functions in different devices in order to utilize the most efficient and most economical means for performing each function.